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For Neil Wolfenden, Managing Director of Cynosure UK, the aesthetic and anti-ageing industry is a service industry, and that means that the focus should be on the customer.

‘Selling lasers is important, but what’s more important is happy customers — otherwise you won’t sell lasers,’ he explains. ‘I believe in the 80/20 rule and always have: 80% of your energy should be focused on the customer, while the remaining 20% is on new business, because customer satisfaction and the relationship between our company and every one of our customers, as individuals, is at the heart of the successful working relationships we have built when selling each laser.’

And it would seem that this customer‑focused attitude is something that has influenced the entirety of Mr Wolfenden’s career.

‘I still vividly remember the first laser I sold and who I sold it to — I remember all my customers!’

Clinical results

Neil began his career in the 1980s as a medical salesman for a company called Auto Suture Company (now Tyco), and quickly found his passion for laser technology when keyhole surgery became the new art of minimally-invasive surgery. After building a good reputation and progressing his career with Laserscope and Candela, he joined Cynosure as MD in 2010.

‘Cynosure is a manufacturer and supplier of lasers only, and is very much geared towards medical and clinical back-up,’ he explains of the company, which has expanded its portfolio hugely over the last few years, not least through the acquisitions of Eleme Medical and ConBio.

Neil continues to discuss Cynosure’s aims in the development of technology: ‘Trials have to be FDA-approved, and time and again we produce clinical evidence that is consistent and enforces the power of what we do.

‘Our range of lasers give clinical results that are backed up by evidence because the company has invested in R&D. We want to invest in products that will both be appealing in terms of clinical efficacy, and patient safety. Safety and results are the most important factors for the patient.’

A high-level portfolio of products

What excites Neil about laser and energy‑based devices, is that they far exceed other devices in terms of clinical results.

‘We must never forget the basic principles of selective photothermolysis, which works by emitting light of a particular wavelength, absorbed by the targeted chromophore only,’ he says.

‘It’s not only selecting the correct wavelength that’s important; there needs to be enough fluence, the correct spot size, and the correct pulse duration to emit the light to the target. These three basic principles must be independent of one another to get consistent clinical results.

‘Lasers provide all these and with the large portfolio of lasers we provide, we can confidently say that we cover the complete range of aesthetic applications to achieve the very best in clinical efficacy.’

And as patients have greater access to resources and information on treatments over the internet, Neil says that they want and expect the same results because they are paying for it. Therefore, the investment into high-level capital goods will get the clinical efficacy desired.

One example of such an exciting, high‑end product that Cynosure launched in 2011, is Cellulaze, which has quickly become the biggest investment the company has made.

‘It’s escalated uncontrollably because the demand for this treatment is there, the expectation we can deliver is there, and it’s unique,’ Neil explains. ‘It’s wonderful in that we can treat the cause of cellulite and it really does work.’